"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected two separate objections to the settlement, which arose from a class-action lawsuit originally filed in 1996.

The settlement in Cobell v. Salazar has already been approved by Congress, President Obama and a federal district court judge.

The agreement included $1.5 billion in compensation to settle charges that Interior mismanaged the trust assets of American Indians. It also provided $1.9 billion for the voluntary buyback and consolidation of fractionated lands."